Being able to put epubs bought elsewhere and reading them without needing to convert the files is a huge plus
> Being able to put epubs bought elsewhere
I'd say it is in this case.
Standard Ebooks for high quality public domain books, though they also offer azw.
There are a number of other free ebook sites out there as well.
If you copy an epub to the device over USB it won't work. The kindle itself does not support epub.